Scottish Executive

Air Services

Robert Brown (Glasgow) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what benefit it anticipated would be gained from using public funding from the Route Development Fund to help establish direct flights from Edinburgh to New York when direct flights from Glasgow to New York were already in operation.

Nicol Stephen: The development of a new direct transatlantic route serving Scotland represents a significant enhancement in Scotland’s business and tourism links with the United States. It also reduces the miles travelled by putting travellers direct to their destination without the need to travel to a hub airport.

  The Edinburgh to New York service is complementary to the current Glasgow service.

Justice

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many reports procurators fiscal received from each non-police reporting agency in 2002-03 and, of these, how many (a) were marked "no proceedings" on account of delay on the part of the reporting agency, (b) proceeded to trial, (c) resulted in a conviction and (d) are currently pending.

Mrs Elish Angiolini: Procurators fiscal receive in the region of 300,000 reports annually from the police and over fifty specialist reporting agencies. Around 35,000 of those are from specialist reporting agencies, the majority of whom do not yet report cases electronically. To obtain this data would require, in addition to writing a programme to interrogate the system, a significant amount of manual checking and interpretation of data. Consequently, it would only be possible to provide the information requested at disproportionate cost.

Parliamentary Questions

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-115 by Mrs Elish Angiolini on 19 June 2003, how much it cost to answer that question.

Mrs Elish Angiolini: The information requested related to only one reporting agency and involved 22 reports. An exact figure cannot be provided, but it is estimated that the staff costs to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of searching for, retrieving, checking and presenting the data requested was in the region of £400. The data was also checked by HM Customs and Excise Staff against their records.

Parliamentary Questions

Nicola Sturgeon (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answers to questions S2W-1509 and S2W-1510 by Colin Boyd QC on 12 August 2003, how much it would cost to answer these questions.

Colin Boyd QC: An exact figure cannot be provided. Procurators fiscal receive in the region of 300,000 reports annually from the police and over fifty specialist reporting agencies. Around 35,000 of those are from specialist reporting agencies, the majority of whom do not yet report cases electronically. To obtain this data would require, in addition to writing a programme to interrogate the system, a significant amount of manual checking and interpretation of data.

Public Sector Pay

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-2766 by Mr Andy Kerr on 30 September 2003, whether it has made any recommendations to Her Majesty’s Government in respect of regional pay bargaining and, if so, what the recommendations were.

Mr Andy Kerr: The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including regional pay. Responsibility for public sector pay is a devolved matter (with the exception of the civil service in Scotland) and it will be for the Scottish Executive to decide what is appropriate in our circumstances.

Sexual Offences

Margaret Mitchell (Central Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will make representations to Her Majesty's Government to ensure that Scotland is covered by clause 17 of the Sexual Offences Bill, currently being considered by the UK Parliament.

Cathy Jamieson: We are currently considering, in consultation with Crown Office, whether the law in this area should be strengthened.

Transport

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how it will involve appropriate trade unions in the discussions on the formation of the Strategic Transport Authority, as referred to in A Partnership for a Better Scotland .

Nicol Stephen: The consultation on the proposed new transport agency and regional transport partnerships will continue until 17 December. The consultation paper Scotland’s Transport, Proposals for a New Approach to Transport in Scotland is available in the Parliament’s Reference Centre, from the Scottish Executive and on the Scottish Executive website. It is important that as many individuals and organisations as possible with an interest in improving transport delivery in Scotland - including appropriate trade unions - contribute to the consultation. I had a useful discussion with the Scottish Trades Union Congress on a range of transport issues including the proposed strategic transport authority on 4 September.